Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind

Addictive experiences and chemicals are ubiquitous in modern society, and there has been much discussion on how to combat harmful addictions. Many recovery methods focus on using reason to combat addictive habits, but Brewer argues that these are ineffective, as people’s rewards-based learning is more powerful than rationality. For instance, one of his patients had smoked cigarettes for 40 years, perpetuating the craving, behavior, and reward cycle nearly 300,000 times. To make matters worse, corporations have applied neuroscience to make the products as addictive as possible, whether it is junk food or a website. This leaves our brains “outwitted and outgunned” (161). Worse still, stress tends to shut down rational thinking and cognitive control, making people even more vulnerable to habitual behaviors. The author claims that mindfulness does not require much reason but instead engages the “caveman brain” to change its perception of a reward (163).

Brewer reveals the next stage in the process: to make your brain a “bigger, better offer,” or BBO, than the reward it is used to receiving (163). He advises the reader to be careful not to merely substitute a different problematic reward, such as redirecting a smoking habit to bad food.